Buy.com deal with eBay angers sellers

Deal signals that eBay's future lies with big sellers, not the mom-and-pop shops objecting so vociferously, analyst says.

The story "Buy.com deal with eBay angers sellers" published July 14, 2008 at 8:39 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

Content from The New York Times expires after 7 days.

[badasscat]

So Ebay's position is that they need to play catch-up in an industry they were never actually in rather than take on the defining role in the industry they pioneered? This is no way to run a business.

Auctions and fixed-price sites are two totally separate business models. They may both loosely be defined as "e-commerce", but that's like saying wine and milk may both be loosely defined as drinks. The market is not the same. What Ebay is doing is tantamount to a wine maker saying "all we need to do is get ourselves in the dairy aisle and we'll be set. All the big drinks are in the dairy aisle, that's where we need to be."

Morons.

[humanssssss]

ebay can stick it up theirs.

[rksmythe]

Couldn't agree with badasscat more if i wrote that myself.

[Below Meigh]

I totally agree with badasscat. eBay has lost its direction. Having been a small seller/buyer (I stopped after being harassed by SIIA and after ebay changed its feedback system in May) I have disdain for eBay and its monopoly with payments (PayPal), the lack of security (there are still too many scams and phishes), the inept response system (boilerplate reply and no human customer service) and parasitic-fee system.
I welcome any competition to online auctions and payment. Die eBay. Just die.

[LarryM701]

I still buy on E-bay to the amount of about 500.00 per month.
I buy Coins - Postcards - antiques and assorted other items.
I will buy only auctins items - no buy it now or any fixed price items

What Ebay does not seem to understand, all the items I have listed above are offered on other auctions sites and usually at a lower price. If Ebay does not keep up it's standards there will be other sites that will be more than happy to take their auction business away.

[johntm1]

I opened an ebay account on July 8, 2008. Since then, I had two scam attempts,
one misleading item listing and and fake emails. I closed my account today.

[RSebire]

I have used Ebay as a seller for years now, and in that time I have seen it change so much. The reviewer here is quite right, Ebay are now becoming nothing more than an e commerce portal where only the largest retailers can actually make any profits.
There are many ways to reduce your listing fees and increase sales that are free and very useful if your savy enough to do some research into it.
But the whole idea of buy.com (parasitic middle men) not having to pay fess to ebay and paypal (parasitic middle men) is an abuse of power.
I was offered the power seller status and refused, i feel sorry for all those that accepted as their hard work which made they site is now being abused and replaced by big business's that are not adverse to or suited to this niche. Buy.com has its own webspace/search engine ect.... Why would Ebay shun its core users. If I wanted to use buy.com I'd got to buy.com. Next Play.com and Amazon.com will start listing in fixed price auctions, again abusing their power a destroying their own second hand sales markets respectively.
Many people only buy on Ebay, with no fees, try selling, its getting harder and harder with fees from Ebay and Paypal always taking way more than you expect.
And yes scams are increasing dramatically all the time, there are even sites now where you can buy feedback, and even if you get kick off ebay there are other sites that specialize in getting you back on via IP address forwarding ect.

Heres a scam that's rife at the moment and should be on watchdog soon =
There a Ebay shop with power status called lightsandfittings, no problem there, they are a power seller? Wrong, I brought a microwave listed as new from them, turned up, wasn't new or even working. Could get my money back through paypal or my credit card, but dug into it and PLEASE READ - THE SELLER (POWER SELLER) IS ACTUALLY IN HMS FORD PRISON FOR FRAUD AND USES THE LIBRARY COMPUTERS TO LIST ALL THE OTHER CONVICTS STOLEN GOODS. You cant speak to them or see them without there written permission, HMS Prisons policies.
What do you do, nothing you have to write the money off, Paypal and Ebay actually allow prisons to list goods, this has been going on for at least two years in my knowledge. (Phone Ebay - they will confirm that anybody including those in prison can trade on ebay, even if they are there for fraud)
And using a site to annonomise you and re map your ip address, you can pretend your anywhere in the world, so just to let you know all these warnings of Nigerian scammers, quite a few of them arent from Nigeria they are in prison here in the UK.
Check the torrent sites for pdfs. on how to do this and scam away the last few good people on ebay, until ebay just becomes a portal for buy.com and who ever else has millions to waste.
The e commerce bubble is bursting rapidly, ebay and other sites with their spyware/adware/redirection ect has show that how deeply flawed the infrastructure is.
I have know sellers sell 100 of items and actually make a loss - no profit - actually dept.

Oh and if you want to rip someone off, buy anything with second class delivery - your new ps3 for instance. And just say to paypal it never arrived you'll get your money back and have a new ps3 - mind though only do it the once or twice.
Ebay just die, just die

[RSebire]

I have used Ebay as a seller for years now, and in that time I have seen it change so much. The reviewer here is quite right, Ebay are now becoming nothing more than an e commerce portal where only the largest retailers can actually make any profits.
There are many ways to reduce your listing fees and increase sales that are free and very useful if your savy enough to do some research into it.
But the whole idea of buy.com (parasitic middle men) not having to pay fess to ebay and paypal (parasitic middle men) is an abuse of power.
I was offered the power seller status and refused, i feel sorry for all those that accepted as their hard work which made they site is now being abused and replaced by big business's that are not adverse to or suited to this niche. Buy.com has its own webspace/search engine ect.... Why would Ebay shun its core users. If I wanted to use buy.com I'd got to buy.com. Next Play.com and Amazon.com will start listing in fixed price auctions, again abusing their power a destroying their own second hand sales markets respectively.
Many people only buy on Ebay, with no fees, try selling, its getting harder and harder with fees from Ebay and Paypal always taking way more than you expect.
And yes scams are increasing dramatically all the time, there are even sites now where you can buy feedback, and even if you get kick off ebay there are other sites that specialize in getting you back on via IP address forwarding ect.

Heres a scam that's rife at the moment and should be on watchdog soon =
There a Ebay shop with power status called lightsandfittings, no problem there, they are a power seller? Wrong, I brought a microwave listed as new from them, turned up, wasn't new or even working. Could get my money back through paypal or my credit card, but dug into it and PLEASE READ - THE SELLER (POWER SELLER) IS ACTUALLY IN HMS FORD PRISON FOR FRAUD AND USES THE LIBRARY COMPUTERS TO LIST ALL THE OTHER CONVICTS STOLEN GOODS. You cant speak to them or see them without there written permission, HMS Prisons policies.
What do you do, nothing you have to write the money off, Paypal and Ebay actually allow prisons to list goods, this has been going on for at least two years in my knowledge. (Phone Ebay - they will confirm that anybody including those in prison can trade on ebay, even if they are there for fraud)
And using a site to annonomise you and re map your ip address, you can pretend your anywhere in the world, so just to let you know all these warnings of Nigerian scammers, quite a few of them arent from Nigeria they are in prison here in the UK.
Check the torrent sites for pdfs. on how to do this and scam away the last few good people on ebay, until ebay just becomes a portal for buy.com and who ever else has millions to waste.
The e commerce bubble is bursting rapidly, ebay and other sites with their spyware/adware/redirection ect has show that how deeply flawed the infrastructure is.
I have know sellers sell 100 of items and actually make a loss - no profit - actually dept.

Oh and if you want to rip someone off, buy anything with second class delivery - your new ps3 for instance. And just say to paypal it never arrived you'll get your money back and have a new ps3 - mind though only do it the once or twice.
Ebay just die, just die

[ocdgirl2000]

This was not a surprise to me. I've been saying this very same thing for over a year now, and many of the sellers on ebay just didn't want to hear it. I guess it was just a case of idealistic thinking or denial...in any event, it still hurts. The whole business is changing quickly, and that is a formula for failure in any business. If the goal was to use the ebay brand name to attract retailers, then they should have been VERY up front about it from the moment they made the decision to do that.

In that way, they could have worked to help the community accept the inevitable, and help find homes for the displaced sellers who would be causing all the grief they have now. And it is very obvious by the responses to the interviews with financial analysts, that the Marketplaces sector (60% including all auctions and stores) is behind 3 points, and that without Paypal, Eba would be in very SERIOUS trouble.
Had they been more honest with their customers, the auction and store owners, then everyone could have worked together to maintain a semblance of dignity. Now there is none. And what makes it even worse, is that they blame the 3 point loss on the discount they give to the powersellers, as well as the coupons they gave to the buyers. Freebees given to buyers are not what makes a business work. As it is, the sellers are now giving their own customers free goods thanks to the lack of customer support and safety for sellers.

The many people who used to sell in auctions on ebay were frightened away with the blatant and obtrusive changes that have been made so quickly, and without any regret, or apology by the business, Ebay, which already adds insult to injury.

A better idea might have been to keep the auction business "as is" and limit the retailers to another half of ebay. Maybe call it ebay "new" and ebay "used". Those, like BUY, could list as well as all the wholesalers who sell purses and perfumes, and the asian importers. The buyers and bidders would find it easier to get what they actually want, rather than confuse them, or set one faction against another in order to fight for the first page of listings. It's really not rocket science. Fast changes to the original site are going to push the whole marketplace sector down to it's lowest resting place.

The board of directors and the stockholders need to rethink the plans made by ex retail CEO's.So far, the results of Q2 were the first warning signs...

[minonda]

All the comments above, especially badasscat's, are right on target. I just want to add that the key to ebay's failure as a trusted auction site is that it refused ever to monitor its sellers. It stubbornly maintained that it was a venue only, and had no control over the actions of people who use the venue. That's all poppycock, and they now see that they have presided over a den of thieves that no one trusts. No wonder they have to abandon their original goal and try to be a retail seller like everyone else. If they had been willing to take an active role in making sure that people could buy safely on ebay, they might still be doing okay.